What is Tidal and how does it work?
This page was translated using AI and machine learning.
(Pocket-lint) – Tidal is a digital music streaming service that gives you access to over 80 million songs and 350,000 videos from music artists around the world, like Spotify and Apple Music.
Tidal has always aimed to right the wrongs in the music industry and ensure that artists are paid directly and in full for their art. In return, you get higher quality music than a CD and hopefully a warm feeling in your stomach at the thought of paying for HD tracks.
Tidal emphasizes audio quality and offers two subscription levels allowing you to access lossless FLACs and even 9216Kbps Master quality sound on the HiFi level. This is something that is not yet offered by Spotify, although it has been announced that Spotify HiFi is due to launch in 2021.
To help you decide if Tidal is worth your money and time, especially when faced with the competition, we’ve covered how Tidal works and what supposedly makes it better.
How does the tide work?
Tidal requires a paid subscription to use, but offers a 30-day free trial for new subscribers, so it’s pretty easy to try it out and see if this is the platform for you. The Tidal app works with over 95 platforms including Android, iOS, and desktop computers, as well as some cars and HiFi equipment.
When launching the application for the first time, the service offers you a very intuitive way to select the artists you like and with each of them other artists will appear. It’s a very smooth experience and only takes a few minutes.
Tidal then uses that data to organize playlists and suggest songs and artists you might enjoy, right off the bat. Of course, you can also search for old-fashioned music. Tidal lets you save your favorite playlists, albums and tracks, as well as download them for offline listening.
How much is the tide?
You can see how much Tidal costs here. There are two packages available, called HiFi and Premium, the former priced at $ 19.99 (£ 19.99) per month and the latter at $ 9.99 (£ 9.99) per month. Competing services like Spotify only charge $ 9.99 per month, but currently only offer 320 Kbps playback, which is equivalent to Tidal’s Premium plan.
Comparatively, Amazon Music Unlimited also offers High Definition and Spatial Audio listening, albeit with a smaller library and no MQA options. Amazon’s service is priced at $ 12.99 (£ 7.99) for Prime members and $ 14.99 ($ 9.99) for non-members.
What devices support Tidal?
The Tidal music service offers a wide range of media on third-party audio systems, such as Sonos and Denon Home. Tidal can be added as a streaming music source in dedicated apps for these systems, ensuring audiophiles get the best possible codecs through their speakers.
Tidal also has a feature similar to Chromecast and AirPlay, called Tidal Connect. Using the Tidal app as a controller, you can select supported speakers for playback and it will send the highest quality stream possible, whether it’s FLAC, Master audio or even Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos.
A full list of almost 100 supported devices can be found here.
Where is Tidal available?
Tidal is currently available in 61 countries and plans to continue increasing that number. Most of Europe, North and South America, and Australia are covered, but if you want to see the full list, you can find it here.
How do you navigate on Tidal?
Once you’ve downloaded the Tidal app and signed up, you’ll go through a personalization process, which will ask you to select the artists you like. After going through the simple process, you will end up on the home screen. Here you will see a selection of music that Tidal thinks you will enjoy based on your previous selections, and after using the app for a while, depending on your listening habits as well.
There is a menu bar at the bottom of the screen to navigate to the different sections of Tidal. There are four screen tabs in the menu bar:
Home : This page is loaded with music suggestions that Tidal thinks you’ll love, in the form of playlists, radio stations, new songs, and ratings.
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Videos: brings you featured videos from the Tidal Network as well as video playlists tailored to your tastes. You can also access the album experiences here, which are mostly director’s comments but for the albums. There are even feature films here, mostly musical documentaries.
Explore: l Explore tab allows you to search for a specific song, artist or genre. It also lets you browse music to suit moods, activities, events, and more.
My collection : Every time you add a song, album, video, or playlist to your favorites, it is added to your collection under Mixes, Playlists, Artists, Albums, or Tracks. You can also find your downloaded tracks and recent activity here, along with access to settings.
How to modify or cancel your Tidal subscription?
If you decide to upgrade or no longer want to be a Tidal subscriber, the process is pretty straightforward.
In your browser:
- Log on to my.TIDAL.com.
- Click on Subscription.
- Select Upgrade, Downgrade, or Cancel.
- Confirm your selection.
In the Tidal application:
- Click My Collection, Settings, Edit Profile, then Manage Subscription.
- Click on Subscription.
- Select Upgrade, Downgrade, or Cancel.
- Confirm your selection.
If you use Apple Pay:
- Go to settings.
- Click Apple ID.
- Click on Subscriptions.
- Confirm your selection.
Are there any alternatives?
Alternatives include: Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Deezer, and Apple Music. Each of these services allows you not only to stream music, but also to download and listen offline.
Some of these services offer a free tier, which can be very attractive, when Tidal requires payment information before the free trial. It must be said that none offer quite the same audio fidelity as the recordings of Tidals Master, Amazon Music Unlimited and Deezer come close enough, however.
You can learn more about all of these services by checking out the following Pocket-lint roundups:
Written by Luke Baker. Originally published on .